The Lion King
by Shirekat
Summary: Ron tells his children a story about a hero named the Lion King and his two best friends: the Boy Who Lived and the Brightest Witch of Her Age.


A/N: Written for Round 9 of the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, as Chaser 2 of the Caerphilly Catapults.

The theme was Disney movies this time around, and I got The Lion King. Well, I'd already written a Hamlet crossover, and they said they were looking for originality, so time for something completely different.

My optional prompts were 5. (restriction) no dialogue, 10. (song) "Use Somebody" by Kings of Leon (it's a bit difficult to find in there, because I changed the person from first to third), and 14. (object) a broken wand.

* * *

There was once a great hero who lived among the common wizarding folk. On first glance he appeared ordinary to many of his fellows, but soon his greatness was revealed and he won many friends. Two stood out among the rest. The first was a boy with a dark past; the second was a girl with a bright future.

The Hero chose the Boy Who Lived because he knew that he could help him to conquer his past. And he did. He chose the girl for an entirely different reason.

She was known throughout the land as the Brightest Witch of Her Age, and he knew that he could use someone like her, and all she knew, and how she spoke. He knew that she would help him achieve the greatness that was his destiny.

However, with great friendship comes great peril, and that was how the hero proved himself.

When they were all still very young, the Boy Who Lived was sent on a quest. He asked the Hero to lead this quest, and the Hero agreed. The Hero led his friends through perils untold, such as the villainous Devil's Snare, which tried to capture them and keep them from their quest. Then the Hero used his skill on a broom to capture the very key they needed to proceed. Finally, in a massive game of Wizard's Chess, he played the Black Knight. He knew very quickly that to beat the game and allow the Boy Who Lived to continue on the quest without him, he would have to sacrifice himself. Without knowing the fate that would befall him after the white Queen had stabbed him with her giant sword—whether he would live or die—he rode the stone horse into the open to finish the game. As he lay, on Death's door, he told the Boy Who Lived to go on without him. The Boy Who Lived accomplished his quest, and through the brilliance of the Brightest Witch of Her Age, the Hero lived to see another day.

His next act of heroism might have seemed smaller to some, but to the Hero, it was just as important as his first sacrifice. He saw one of his greatest enemies, the Snake Boy, attack the Brightest Witch of Her Age from a great distance. To get to her, he had to cross paths with a carnivorous tree, which he barely escaped, and at a great cost—his wand was snapped in half. Even so, the Hero knew he had to save the Brightest Witch of Her Age, so he rushed in front of her just as a spell from the Snake Boy was about to hit her, taking the full force of the jinx himself. He was spitting slugs for hours, but the Brightest Witch of Her Age was safe, so it was worth it to the Hero.

It was years before the Hero would get his True Name, though. He and the Boy Who Lived and the Brightest Witch of Her Age faced monsters, curses, and bad wizards and witches. The Hero fought dragons for his friends, and put himself in harm's way to protect them countless times. Word of his heroic acts spread far and wide, earning him the name the Lion King. People chanted it, wherever he went.

But the Lion King had yet to make his greatest mistake. There was a war, you see, and the Boy Who Lived and the Brightest Witch of Her Age once again asked for the Lion King's help. So he made his greatest sacrifice yet—he was tasked to protect a locket that held the key to winning the war. The Locket tore him apart from the inside. It played on the Lion King's fears and doubts—oh yeah, even heroes have them. Even heroes like the Lion King.

The Locket started whispering in his ear. At first, the Lion King was able to ignore it, but the longer he wore the Locket, the stronger its hold on him became. After a while, it started showing him visions, and even though he tried to dismiss them, as he had dismissed the lies the Locket had told him, the Lion King became confused. Unable to tell reality from the lies the Locket told him, he ran away, leaving the Boy Who Lived and the Brightest Witch of Her Age alone in the wilderness without his protection. _That_ was the Lion King's biggest mistake: leaving his friends helpless and alone when they needed him most.

He regretted his decision almost immediately, realizing that it was the fault of the Locket, that he shouldn't have left his friends. But still, the locket tormented him. It showed him false visions of where he could find his friends, and the Lion King became terribly lost. It showed him visions of the Boy Who Lived sinking down on his knees in despair, and the Brightest Witch of Her Age weeping at the loss of the Lion King. However, the Locket showed the Lion King other visions, too. It showed him his two best friends going on without him, as if nothing had changed—as if he hadn't meant anything to them at all—and it showed him false images of the Boy Who Lived poisoning the Brightest Witch of Her Age with lies about the Lion King. The Locket showed her believing these lies.

But, in the end, the Locket gave the Lion King a gift. As he fought against the visions, he began to realize what his friends truly meant to him. He began to see the Boy Who Lived and the Brightest Witch of Her Age as heroes almost equal to himself, and he began to realize that he needed them as much as they needed him.

Most of all, the Lion King grew to understand that he had fallen in love with the Brightest Witch of Her Age—that everything he'd done was in the hope that it would make her notice someone like him. It was this love that gave the Lion King the strength and the clarity to find his friends again.

Together, they defeated the evil of the locket, and won the war. And the Lion King married the Brightest Witch of Her Age, and they were very very happy. And as the story ended, Hermione tucked in the sleepy children of the Lion King, and looked at her husband with a fond, if exasperated smile.


End file.
